Can Supplements and Diet Help Fight IBD?

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are caused, among other reasons, due to unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Can supplements help counter the effects?

Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and irritable bowel syndrome fall in the category of diseases that have been dubbed 'man-made diseases.' Caused by the excesses of modern unhealthy lifestyle, diet does play a big role in stomach ailments like these. It is very sad that most people downplay the importance of something as vitally important and basic as diet. People do not realize the sheer amount of unhealthy foods they are ingesting everyday - greasy fast food, candy bars, gooey cakes and ice-creams, deep-fried snacks, not to mention cigarettes and recreational drugs.

Half a million people in America are suffering from ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome and other related ailments. The government has put bans on drugs like cocaine and heroin because they are bad for us. But, unhealthy food habits kill more people than drugs could ever hope to achieve. Now, the question is - do supplements help fight these diseases? What is the purpose of taking supplements in the first place?

Supplements are used to supply our bodies with essential nutrients that we are apparently not getting enough of. If that is the purpose, why not take them through natural healthy food instead of getting them through a chemical powder in a box? You must follow a healthy diet because that is the best insurance you can have against stomach diseases or for that matter, any disease. Otherwise, even a minor stomach ailment like irritable bowel syndrome can aggravate into something major like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

Prevention is better than cure. Nip ulcerative colitis in the bud. Start eating healthy now and don't wait to ask, "Will diet cure this?" Why wait till you actually need a cure? Start eating healthy now! Don't rely just on health magazines. Health magazines do more harm than good because every time you pick up a health magazine, you will see an article raving exaggeratedly about the benefits of some obscure vegetable and people fall for the fad and overdo it and end up harming themselves. Fruit juices are only beneficial if they are drunk sugarless, otherwise sugar defeats the purpose. Reduce the intake of any unhealthy and potentially lethal substances. Notice the word "reduce," that means you need not avoid totally because sugars and oils and fats are needed in limited quantity for our bodies to function normally. So it's okay to indulge yourself sometime. But don't use that as an excuse to binge.